I like the bit where he points out "that strange moment where you realize that the movie's WORKING...". Max & Goofy's relationship is so perfect here. "I'm not your little boy anymore, dad! I've got my own LIFE now!" "I KNOW THAT! I just wanted to be a PART of it!" That's the moment where you realize that your heart breaks for FRIGGIN' GOOFY.

In my personal scale that comes just a a step lower than the moment when you realize that Goofy is actually a widower.

BTW, Disney comics are a pretty big deal in Italy, in no small part thanks to a many great writers and there are many stories where Goofy actually turns out to be smarter than he looks, or rather where you realize that he's not stupid, but his brain isn't wired like those of many other people.

It's odd how they never mention that in the movie- I'm not sure if Goof Troop did, either. There's just kind of... no mom around, like many Disney movies. I remember Roger Ebert's review joking about how he wanted to see what the trial was like where GOOFY was awarded custody in a divorce.

I do enjoy that Max has become an accepted part of the Disney Canon- he can be seen in the updated Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, a few animated shorts feature him with a college girlfriend (*sniff* He must have split up with Roxanne...), and he's even a meetable character at Tokyo Disney Parks!

* Jodell Ferland wins "cutest celebrity", but was wearing so much foundation she looked like a marshmallow. Rose McIver looked pretty good, but was well into the "no make-up/wearing baggy clothes" thing because celebs usually don't dress up for these things. It was a bit tough to tell, but once she got talking, you were like "Oh, this is the Girl Next Door type" and I realized how good-looking she really was.

* Poor Susan Eisenberg had absolutely nobody in her line every time I walked by (okay, so that's twice). Too bad, but really, $30 is pretty steep for someone whose only real claim to fame is playing Wonder Woman in a cartoon that ended more than ten years ago.

* "Longest Line For Someone I've Never Heard Of" goes to Charlie Cox, who I guess is Daredevil. He actually charged ten bucks more than Gene Simmons ($90!). Both had huge lines, as well as Alex Kingston (who looks 100% like somebody who does palm-reading for a living; I only know her from ER, and the nude scenes that used to circulate on the "back when you could only see quick scenes on mpegs" days of the internet) and of course William Shatner, who was actually visible. It's weird- I guess they must have had complaints, because the big-name celebs are ALWAYS out from the curtains now. One year I went, and Howard & Raj from Big Bang Theory were hidden away where you couldn't see them without buying an autograph first.

* Shatner was apparently TALKATIVE, which a co-worker told me is incredibly rare, to the point where some Cons have people up front telling fans to not speak to, or look at, The Captain. I guess he's a big grump at these things, despite raking in the cash.

* Ernie Hudson had a pretty solid line, and it made me realize how much stuff he was in back in the day. I mostly know him for OZ, though obviously Ghostbusters is his big deal. He's a pretty tall, solid dude, though of course age has given him a helluva gut at this point. And points to both him and John Rhys-Davies, who had big lines every single time I came by, and were never on an extended break.

-Okay, now THAT'S a good secret identity- a pair of TWINS who alternate acting as a superhero. The twin daughters of a crime lord, they used their skills to fight crime- Rosetta Morgan was a great fighter, while Regina was skilled with technology- they trained with Phil "Green Goblin" Urich, and were considered pretty good. Inspired by the Falcon, they took on a bird-themed gimmick, and one would monitor the activity of the other in the field. Rosetta would eventually join Spider-Girl, The Buzz, Darkdevil, Raptor & Phil on the brand-new New Warriors team. The Hobgoblin discovered the two and badly beat them to get at Spider-Girl- Regina was left wheelchair-bound, leading Rosetta to blame herself. She eventually got her father's gang to assault the villain.

-Rosetta is a better fighter, but Regina is smarter, making her a tad more expensive, but only PL 7 unarmed. Enough of a difference exists between them that a trained eye (like Spider-Girl) can tell they're different people when fighting.

I like the bit where he points out "that strange moment where you realize that the movie's WORKING...". Max & Goofy's relationship is so perfect here. "I'm not your little boy anymore, dad! I've got my own LIFE now!" "I KNOW THAT! I just wanted to be a PART of it!" That's the moment where you realize that your heart breaks for FRIGGIN' GOOFY.

In my personal scale that comes just a a step lower than the moment when you realize that Goofy is actually a widower.

BTW, Disney comics are a pretty big deal in Italy, in no small part thanks to a many great writers and there are many stories where Goofy actually turns out to be smarter than he looks, or rather where you realize that he's not stupid, but his brain isn't wired like those of many other people.

It's odd how they never mention that in the movie- I'm not sure if Goof Troop did, either. There's just kind of... no mom around, like many Disney movies. I remember Roger Ebert's review joking about how he wanted to see what the trial was like where GOOFY was awarded custody in a divorce.

I do enjoy that Max has become an accepted part of the Disney Canon- he can be seen in the updated Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, a few animated shorts feature him with a college girlfriend (*sniff* He must have split up with Roxanne...), and he's even a meetable character at Tokyo Disney Parks!

It was never explicitly mentioned, but according to some sources there was a scene in Goof Troop where Max asked about his mother and Goofy told him: "She's up there with the stars". Depending on what site you check they would tell you that it's canon or that it was never done. When the writing team for Goof Troop was interviewed on the subject they said that "There's no definitive answer".

Complications:
Responsibility (The Goblin Legacy)- Normie is the grandson of Norman Osborn, and believes that he must carry on the family legacy.
Relationship (Brenda Drago)- The two are eventually married.

-Normie Osborn grew up a bit odd- he didn't get along with his stepfather Foggy Nelson until after his mother's death, and resented Peter Parker for years over the deaths of his father and grandfather. Becoming the Green Goblin after his mother died, he forced May Parker to become Spider-Girl for the first time. Appearing to be suicidal, he is taken from the bring by May, who later develops feelings for him. He nonetheless marries Brenda "Raptor" Drago before having the Venom Symbiote forcibly attached to him. He managed to control it for a time, and it was changed by his innately-loving nature- it ultimately sacrifices itself to save Peter Parker from the Hobgoblin.

Complications:
Responsibility (The Goblin Legacy)- Normie is the grandson of Norman Osborn, and believes that he must carry on the family legacy.
Relationship (Brenda Drago)- The two are eventually married.

* "Most Cosplayed" was I swear to God going to go to Queen Elsa of all people (in *2017*, still! Even as the hype/crazy slows down, that's still one of the best visual designs in history), then I saw an Ariel that tied it up and three apiece. And then, in the last half hour of the festivities, I saw no less than THREE new Wonder Womans, and THREE new Harley Quinns, leaving those two to run away with the top prize. And I think there were enough Spider-Men to tie it up as well, but you can never tell if those are different people. Quinn's cultural cache is now HUGE thanks to Suicide Squad, which is oddly the one comic book movie in recent history that puts female-based fanservice ahead of shirtless men.

* Most of the same old shops are here. The guy who did Cigarro and Cerveja, a neat little comic for the University newspaper when I was going to school, was there as always. A couple artists have neat booths, though I HATE the "hard sell" they give you. I'm just looking at stuff and they're practically shoving their books into my hands and asking what I like about their work, and I'm just like "AGH I DON'T LIKE TALKING TO RANDOM PEOPLE LEAVE ME ALONE!"

* The toy booths all made it- including the "guy who over-charges for Battle Beasts", "the guy with the really tiny booth of toys that I don't actually care about, which is weird", and multiple "guys who charge absurd fees for Japanese import TransFormers with way more detail than normal". Dino-Riders toys are once again impossible to find (though I DID find a booth that sold the individual riders. But that Battle Beasts guy... he charges $25 for a single figure with a weapon- those are fair prices for the rare Penguin & Zebra (which I found in that bin), but... COLONEL BIRD? The FROG? Those are Series I figures! How on Earth is that his universal price for every fig? That definitely wasn't the case the last years I saw this booth (though it skipped Edmonton one time).

Arkrite once described the Edmonton Expo as a "garage sale", and he's not entirely wrong- it feels much more low-grade than Calgary's, though many booths cross over. The Celeb Guests are usually "2-3 big people, then some minor names", and this was no exception (Carrie Fisher is gonna cast a wide shadow after her appearance last year, only two months before she died).

All in all, it was pretty solid, though paying 38 bucks to get in seems a big much- I'm almost certain it was way cheaper last time.

So the NEXT batch of guys all hail from "The List" of characters I've yet to stat from Marvel. A bunch of names had randomly jumped out to me, but the size of the to-do list meant that these names would normally be miles apart. But I figured "the hell with it" and threw some guys out there. This should last about 2-3 days, since a few are that "un-stattable" kind of mystery figure that just deserve a mini-bio, while others need full builds.

-Horde is a classic "Power Geek" kind of tale, but one told more for the sake of the story as much as anything- he just appeared one day, beat up all of the X-Men (plus Captain Britain and Meggan), all to get to some ancient space citadel. With the X-Men forced into keeping the defenses busy, Horde can finally get past them and get the crystal thingie, but Wolverine gets there first. Horde slays him, but Logan's blood falls on the crystal- this resurrects him with vast power, and Horde is beaten, never to reappear. ComicVine describes him thusly: "Horde served as a fairly one dimensional character, only appeared once, and seeming to be only motivated by power. He also only seemed to serve to advance the plot of which consisted of placing various X-men characters into tough dilemmas involving their greatest personal desires."

-Horde is basically "More Powerful Than You" in form- he is stronger than all of the X-Men combined, taking their attacks while smiling like nothing is happening (basically the old Dragon Ball Z cliche of "Smirking guy amidst a cloud of smoke"). He can also Teleport, and things like Mind-Reading have no effect on him. This stuff seems beyond even the friggin' Hulk, so you can see why no later creators used him.

Guys like Horde are a testament to why writers shouldn't remain in one place too long. By the time this story happened Chris Claremont had long since forgotten how to "lower the stakes" when writing as all his X-Men stuff had become "World/Galaxy beating threats" or "yet another power geek moment for Wolverine complete with his 30th new secret origin". The need for Claremont to find another project but refusing to is how we ended up with junk like Horde and Vulcan and most of Claremont's later X stories. For some writers, circling the drain like this wouldn't be so infuriating, but knowing that once upon a time Claremont had been so much better made this type of thing cringeworthy.

Guys like Horde are a testament to why writers shouldn't remain in one place too long. By the time this story happened Chris Claremont had long since forgotten how to "lower the stakes" when writing (plus, how many times can Wolverine get a "new" secret origin?). The need for Claremont to find another project but refusing to is how we ended up with junk like Horde and Vulcan and most of Claremont's later X stories. For some writers, circling the drain like this wouldn't be so infuriating, but knowing that once upon a time Claremont had been so much better made this type of thing cringeworthy.

Wow, and this was in *1982*. The guy was on X-Men for like nine more years. This was before a few other highly-touted story-arcs at least. Though Claremont had definitely lost track of his stories by the end. His stuff after 1990 or so has really failed to hold up at all.

Vulcan was a Brubaker story, though. Which still astonishes me, given how good he was elsewhere. I always took that as greater proof that the X-Men are just an impossibly-hard assignment these days, when even good writers were churning out crap in that series.

Guys like Horde are a testament to why writers shouldn't remain in one place too long. By the time this story happened Chris Claremont had long since forgotten how to "lower the stakes" when writing (plus, how many times can Wolverine get a "new" secret origin?). The need for Claremont to find another project but refusing to is how we ended up with junk like Horde and Vulcan and most of Claremont's later X stories. For some writers, circling the drain like this wouldn't be so infuriating, but knowing that once upon a time Claremont had been so much better made this type of thing cringeworthy.

Wow, and this was in *1982*. The guy was on X-Men for like nine more years. This was before a few other highly-touted story-arcs at least. Though Claremont had definitely lost track of his stories by the end. His stuff after 1990 or so has really failed to hold up at all.

Vulcan was a Brubaker story, though. Which still astonishes me, given how good he was elsewhere. I always took that as greater proof that the X-Men are just an impossibly-hard assignment these days, when even good writers were churning out crap in that series.

Ah, I'd thought this was later. Shows what I know. I guess it was just the "Ghost of Hack-Writing Garbage Future". Of course I pretty much feel that the nadir of X-Men was Onslaught...though there could have been worse (The Upstarts thing was massive crap too). Personally I tend to think that writers not taking the time to tell good, smaller stories is what has made the X-men so impossible. These days everything has to be "bigger" than the last thing, compared to once upon a time when stories could be told about a trip to the mall or some of the older members stepping out to have a drink. Now everything has to have "high stakes" and "earth-shattering revelations". I really think writers have lost sight of the value of small moments.

-The second "Horde" is a group of people who were mutated by The Leader into a single form. He turned them on the Warbound, but Hiroim the Shamed defeated it a few times. It was later seen helping some heroes in battle, but has not reappeared. It is apparently ridiculously powerful, able to defeat the entire Warbound with ease in its first appearance- New Villain Stink puts it around PL 12, because I'm sure someone'd just knock its head off in a second chance.

-Dragonfire and Coldmoon are a pair of characters introduced in some Point One comic in 2012. They were twins, born at the exact same moment, and told that their sibling had died at birth. Kept in a government cell to utilize their powers, both eventually broke free. They went to New York to warn the Avengers of the danger posed by their enemies, and that seems to be it for them. Dragonfire was a pyrokinetic, while Coldmoon created ice. Their powers are left vague, which is a recurring problem with any character created after like 2005- you NEVER KNOW what they're capable of, because they just kind of run around doing stuff in the background.

Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue Sep 26, 2017 5:55 am, edited 1 time in total.